- The Student Basic Needs Center was established
on the campus in October of 2019
to fight the ever-increasing basic needs insecurity
among our students here.
So, aside from our food pantry,
we offer a variety of other services,
including an equipment loan program.
We help students with resources for housing assistance,
transportation assistance, social services needs,
which might include legal aid, car repair,
a host of needs that students can have
while they're on the campus.
So, my role is to help fulfill those services for students,
provide the resources.
We do rely upon donations to sustain ourselves,
so we ask for non-perishable food donations
for our campus community
as well as monetary donations
for our Student Assistance Fund,
and that fund is in place for students
who might need help with paying a utility bill,
who may need help with just making ends meet
from month to month.
Students, especially during the pandemic, faced hardship,
claiming job loss, COVID restrictions,
which led to just a need for help overall,
so the fund was a great innovation for us
to service those needs.
One unique service we provide is
in the way of student emergency assistance.
On the campus, we are very fortunate
that there are a number of fund sources for students,
but students may not know about those various fund sources.
By completing one universal application,
we've removed those hurdles.
And so, my role is to look at that application
and the various fund sources
and find out what student may qualify for
and provide a fund package to aid that student
based on their profile.
We are also unique in that,
as we research and plan the Student Basic Needs Center,
we found that there really wasn't anything like this
in the Kansas City metro.
And so, when we launched,
we saw ourselves as being the first facility of its kind
that services higher education
and the students who attend our college.
The students who utilize our center fall into two types.
One type is your typical student who may live with family,
on their own, or with roommates,
and have trouble making ends meet month to month.
So, if they can come in and get a little food
or get questions answered,
that helps them to be able to sustain themselves
and not have to worry about those struggles.
The other type of student falls into an at-risk category
who relies upon our center week to week
for food and other necessities.
Without us, they likely would not be a JCCC student,
and so we are more of a lifeline
for that type of student,
For both types of students,
the need for transportation comes about
due to the fact many do not drive,
nor can they rely upon family or friends
to get back and forth to school,
so JCCC is excited to partner
with the Kansas City Area Transportation Authority
for Micro Transit,
and Micro Transit is a hybrid
between a traditional bus service
and a ride hailing service such as a Lyft or Uber.
As long as the student lives
within the geographical region for Micro Transit,
a transit vehicle will come to their location,
be it their home or a coffee shop
or any place that works for that student,
versus having to wait for a bus to come to them.
We've also seen that,
in the two year period between 2019 and 2021,
more than 5,500 rides have been given through Micro Transit
to our campus community.
Innovations that we're looking at
would include financial literacy classes and workshops,
and we wish to soon create a basic needs advisory board.
The point of that is that we want the campus community
to be aware of trends in security on campus
and to have that board help us
find ways in which we can further support our students
who come in need.
We also wish to bring in speakers,
we want to partner with other campus departments
to find ways to expand what we do here
to make sure that students can overcome any hardships
that might take place
so that they can focus on their studies here.